Christophe and Nina come over for dinner.

Christophe and Nina have been really gracious to me for welcoming me into their home for a couple meals. I was finally able to make some time to cook dinner for them. Amanda supposedly knew this great market that is cheaper than all the other open markets in Paris. And it's apparently only open on Saturdays.

Turns out she took us on this HUGE detour to get there - it was an open market that I have been to on Sundays with Kat. And it was really close to the Bastille. HAHAHAHA.

I got a BUNCH of fresh vegetables and fruits for under 15 Euro. It was fantastic. Plus, when the market starts to close, they start giving away free veg and fruits. I got free radishes and berries today. Fabulous.

I had some tuna leftover from school so I made these little amuse bouche of seared tuna with a soy/honey/sriracha reduction, and also some mango and avocado.

I also had some duck legs from school. So I cooked them for about three hours with a mirepoix and fresh squeezed orange juice. It turned out to be tender and very light. I also had some fresh snow peas from school as well, so I served those with some turned carrots and asparagus.


Fruit salad we made in school.


And egg whites from school - so I made financiers! Ummmm. This was a hit tonight.


Smile !


After, we went to Berkeley's birthday party at his apartment.

Quick story - we met Berkeley at the Highlander bar in the 5th last year. He is a super cool and funny guy that's been living in Paris the past 5 years. He ended up hanging out with us that night. I recall chatting with him and him telling me that many times when he goes out, he ends up disappearing for the night after he's had enough drinks. So later on in the night, I wanted to get his contact info. I turn around and he's totally gone. Disappeared. Oh well ! Didn't think I would run into him again.

So Andrew saw him at the Moose a few weeks ago. He couldn't remember his name but knew it was a major city and remembered he was from Texas. So he was like "Hey Dallas!" HAHAHAHAHAHH. And that is how we all reconnected.

Annick (Dallas' er Berkeley's gf), Berkeley, Nina, me


That's Julie's sister in the middle. She is here visiting for a month. Throughout the night, Berkeley kept asking her if she was okay and/or needed some milk or some orange juice. It was hilarious. HAH!


It was a really funny night. Quite entertaining to say the least. And see Andrew's expression above? That's his "this shot is so disgusting" look... even though I am sure he enjoys the after-effects.

Later they all ended up going out. Me and Nina wanted to go home "early" since we had to study. It took us an hour to get a cab (we were in the 20th and it was around 3h30). By the time I got home and went to sleep it was 5am. Christophe ended up going back out with them. What a trooper! My "early" night turned out to be "early" morning.